If you don't have an Internet connection, you can work on documents that are stored locally on the device.

If you don't have an Internet connection, you can work on documents that are stored locally on the device.

Photo: Microsoft

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Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during an event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, March 27, 2014. Nadella unveiled Office software for Apple Inc.'s iPad, laying out how he plans to more aggressively push the companys programs onto rival platforms after Windows for mobile devices failed to catch on. less

Update: Indeed, Microsoft launched Office for iPad today, but if you were hoping to pay a small price for standalone apps that would let you create and edit documents, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Word, Excel and Powerpoint for iPad are available from the iTunes App Store and are free to download, but they’ll only let you access and read existing Office documents. If you want to create and edit them, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription. That’s $99.99 a year for most folks.

With that subscription, you’ll be able to create Office documents with features that come close to matching the capabilities of the full version. They’ll be stored online, so you can work on files on your iPad and come back to them later on a PC, Mac or other supported device. You can read more about its features at this Microsoft Office blog post.

Microsoft isn’t saying so for sure, but the smart money believes the company will – at long last – launch a version of its Office productivity suite for iPad during a press event today.

That the software giant has been working on Office for iPad is not in dispute. Former CEO Steve Ballmer said as much last year, though he insisted it wouldn’t be released until after a more touch-friendly version for Windows 8 was out.

But there’s a new sheriff in town, and current CEO Satya Nadella will be heading up the announcement, which begins at noon CDT today and will be streamedlive from Microsoft’s News Center site. It’s possible that we’ll hear about a new version of Office for the PC, but that would be a surprise.

By finally caving in to the iPad, Microsoft is confronting the reality that has been built by the device, which dramatically changed the computing landscape. PC sales are down, tablet sales are up, and this tectonic shift can be squarely laid at the feet of Apple’s iPad, first unveiled only four years ago.

The article, by Nick Wingfield, points out that Microsoft’s hesitation to offer Office for iPad has given the makers of other productivity titles an opportunity to gain a foothold. Apple, for example, now gives away its iOS version of iWork, and iPad users are now used to getting things done with software other than Office.

But the allure of the iconic Microsoft brand is strong. If the product is priced right, and if it really combines the power of Office with the friendliness of the iOS interface, Microsoft could have a huge hit on its hands. From the Times story:

Rick Sherlund, an analyst with Nomura Securities, says he believes Microsoft could add $1 billion or so of additional revenue from Office for the iPad and other devices that don’t run Windows over the next year or so. While it would take more than that to make a big difference for a company of Microsoft’s size, he said investors believed that Microsoft was showing a greater willingness to create products for other companies’ devices.

Can you expect Office for Android and maybe even Google’s Chrome OS? Maybe not today, but Microsoft’s new CEO appears to be better at reading the writing on the wall than his predecessor.

Welcome to the post-PC era, Microsoft. You may be late to the party, but there will be benefits for just showing up, maybe even a renewed relevance.

I’ll update this post after Microsoft’s announcement later today.

Dwight Silverman | Techblogger, social media manager

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